© PAUL BAKER/York PressRichard Shephard at York Minster - PAUL BAKER/York Press
Richard Shephard, who has died aged 71, was headmaster of the Minster School, York, from 1985 to 2004 and an important composer of music both for the church and for the secular world; he was also a pillar of the Minster itself, serving as chamberlain, director of development and lay member of the chapter.
Although best known for sacred music such as anthems, settings of the Eucharist and hymn arrangements, Shephard composed for many genres, including opera, oratorio, theatre and orchestra.
He shied away from grandiose works or those featuring excessive dissonance. "One of the great temptations is to try and write a great big huge piece each time," he said. "Well I've sung in many pieces, which have been given one performance, so I would rather write something that is approachable and will be given more than one performance."
Shephard was heavily involved in the quadrennial York Mystery Plays, as director of music in 2000, when the millennium edition was directed by Greg Doran and seen by 30,000 people, and again in 2016. The music for both was based on considerable research, but presented in modern idiom. Shephard's two magnificent anthems that completed each half can still be heard at services in York Minster.
Richard James Shephard was born in Gloucester on March 20 1949, the son of Bernard Shephard and his wife Hilda (née Benfield); he had a fraternal twin, Jonathan, who was 11 hours his senior.
Although there was little music in the family, by the age of seven or eight young Richard was showing an interest in singing. He began his musical career as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral under Herbert Sumsion, where he was exposed to the music of many of the great composers of the 20th century including Gerald Finzi.
"By being there I was involved in the Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival in the world, certainly in Europe, which has been going since 1715," he recalled. "That meant we sang all of the big oratorios and things. I can remember Kodaly coming to the festival, and I can remember Britten."
He was a choral scholar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read music under David Willcocks. He also studied with Hugh MacDonald, the Berlioz expert, and Alan Ridout, who was his composition tutor, although he recalled that Ridout "rarely turned up".
In 1970 he was appointed director of music at Salisbury Cathedral School, where Lionel Dakers, head of the Royal School of Church Music, encouraged him to try his hand at composing, and in 1974 moved to a similar position at the Godolphin School, also in Salisbury. In 1982 he returned to the Cathedral School as deputy headmaster. During this time he was an alto lay vicar in the cathedral choir.
Shephard soon became involved in the musical life of the city, as he later would in York. He was conductor of the Salisbury Grand Opera Group and the Farrant Singers, guest conductor of the Salisbury Orchestral Society and musical director for various productions at the Salisbury Playhouse. Meanwhile, his first opera, The Turncoat, was written for the Salisbury Festival, although the manuscript was subsequently lost.
In 1985 he was appointed headmaster of York Minster School, from which the Minster's choir was drawn until its closure in 2020. Shortly after his arrival he was made chamberlain at the Minster, which involves leading the sung responses at mattins and evensong. His second opera, Caedmon, was written for the York Early Music Festival of 1996 and involved at least 350 children in telling the Venerable Bede's story of a non-singing monk who miraculously becomes a bard.
Shephard's reputation crossed the Atlantic and two chamber operas, Good King Wenceslas and St Nicholas, were commissioned in the late 1990s by the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and intended for performance at Christmastide.
"They are short, but unpretentious and designed to entertain," he explained to an American PhD student. "I would never make any sort of claim for any of my music to be a great work of art. I hope it is competent and I hope that it works."
By then he was firmly established in the north of England, becoming involved in many musical organisations in Yorkshire, including serving as chairman of the Ryedale Festival and on the board of the Leeds International Piano Competition. Nationally he served on the Archbishops' Commission on Church Music and on the Archbishops' Commission on Cathedrals.
An urbane man with a rich voice, Shephard was awarded the Lambeth doctorate of music in 2001 and appointed MBE in 2012. He was also an honorary freeman of the City of York and a deputy lieutenant for North Yorkshire. Above his mantelpiece at home was a signed portrait of the composer Richard Strauss, whose orchestrations he particularly admired.
In 2015 he was amused to have his likeness immortalised in stone in one of the carved gargoyles on the east end of York Minster. "I don't look on myself as the Hunchback of Notre Dame," he said. "But I am very grateful they have done it."
He was unmarried.
Richard Shephard, born March 20 1949, died February 20 2021
Sign up to the Front Page newsletter for free: Your essential guide to the day's agenda from The Telegraph - direct to your inbox seven days a week.